1i4 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
in the winter time, because the air is wet all winter. It will rot. But 
in an average climate no attention need be paid to that. 
Mr. Haucen. But how do you dry it? 
Mr. Sprmtman. The best way is to kiln-dry it. 
The CHarrman. That could only be done in a wholesale way. 
Mr. Hauern. It would not be practicable to an average farmer. 
Mr. Srrutman. No; but the farmers are interested in it. At St. 
Louis the other day the farmers came down to find out how to do 
things of that kind, and they are going into it on a great scale, and it 
means a large increase of production, and we are encouraging them in 
doing that thing on a commercial scale. 
Mr. Woops. The farmers themselves are drying and growing their 
own seed in many cases, especially in Ilinois. 
Mr. Grarr. At present they charge about $2.50 a bushel. 
Mr. Woops. Yes, sir. 
Mr. Grarr. Now, the Seed Growers’ Association was organized by 
this man Shammel after he had been working for the Illinois Experi- 
ment Station, and they have discovered that there was a great deal of 
fraud in the sale of seed corn. A man in Chicago said that he had 
discovered a superior kind of corn that would produce greatly, and he 
sold it at a big price. He sent it out shelled, and it did not produce 
even as much as the ordinary corn did which the farmers already had, 
and so, in order to meet frauds of that kind, the organization passed 
a resolution that all seed corn should be sold on the ear, unless 
especially requested otherwise by the farmer himself. This enabled the 
farmer to see for himself without deception. The ear is a vital ques- 
tion, and also the shape of the seed. Ifa man desires, he could also 
examine the contents of the corn, which could be done to some extent 
by the naked eye. 
Mr. Haveen. But most of the farmers save their seed? 
Mr. Grarr. Yes; but the result has been the deterioration of the 
seed, growing out of the fact that the pollen on a barren stalk of corn 
is more prolific than the pollen on the healthy stock or fruitful stock, 
and if the barren pollen falls on the fruitful ear or on a generally 
healthy stock, it produces poor results and the result is a deterioration 
of the seed corn. 
Mr. Woops. In the Southwest we are carrying on a line of work to 
secure alkali-resistant crops. By selection we get a strain of a crop 
that will stand considerable alkali in the soil. We are spending a little 
over $4,000 on that work and we ask for en increase of $500, and that 
is barely enough to keep that work going on until we can get enough 
to develop it properly. 
The Crairman. There are other efforts being made in another 
Bureau to eliminate the alkali entirely. 
Mr. Woops. Yes; but after every foot of land is drained that can 
be drained—the largest areas can not be drained at all—the crops that 
must be grown there must be sufficiently alkali resistant to permit 
profitable production. 
Mr. Bowrr. Do you think they can grow crops on land having such 
a large percentage of alkali as in that semidesert region ? 
Mr. Woops. The largest proportion of alkali is in the extreme 
southern portions of California, where there is as high as 4 or 5 per 
cent of alkali. We are now introducing the date palm in that soil, and 
it is making a fine growth. The date palm grows in the Sahara desert, 
